The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-09-03
ZEAL IN RELIGION.
(By the late 1. D. Williamson, D. d.

The destiny of man is not merely to
give a few brief years on this "dim s. .s
of earth,' and then lie down in death,
and be no more forever nor yet, to
dwell with friends and demons in an
endless torture chamber that God has
prepared for his final abode. But the
line of his existence stretches out
through the eternal years of God, and
he is destined to wear a crown of fade
less life, and to go onward and upward
In one eternal pathway of progression,
advancing constantly from one perfec
ton to another, assimilating more and
more to the Creator, and drinking more
and more from the fountains of bliss
and love that are opened hard by the
eternal throne, until at last, the human
ity shall be swallowed up in the divin-
ity and "God shall be all in ALL"
Are these selections of the great
problems of existence matters of indif-
ference? Or, are they not endless
subjects that tower above all others,
and demand of us constant and earn
est zeal in their behalf Can reasona-
BILE mon be properly playing with toys,
and chasing shadows when the eternal
verities of the universe are around
them, and immortality and eternal life
are calling them to behold the dignity
of their natures, and the inheritance to
which God has made them heirs ? Re-
ligion is so adapted to tine wants of the
human soul, and So ecessary to the
well-being of man even heie that no
community, no indiV dts, can secure
the highest ends of NE without its
zeal. The body has its ants, aud
these wants must be supplied, or II
languishes and can never find its de-
velopment in due thought and proper
ton. 1t Graves its daily food, and must
have it, or it is a puny, sickly thing, in
capable of performing its appropriate
functions.
What is true of the body in this re-
gard, is also true of the soul. 1t also
has its wants, and they must be sup
piled, or it cannot reach the measure of
it's health and strength. 1t is not
enough that we are furnished with
mere intellectual food, for the most ca
pacious intellects are often most wick
ed, and most miserable. In all truth
man has a moral and spiritual nature
He is naturally religious being, and
his religious powers must be nurtured
and cultivated. His soul as truly
yearns for higher associations, and
reaches after God and his truth, as his
body Graves its food and drink. II i
not in the power of earth or earthl,
things to satisfy the cravings of th,
spirit.
1.-THE soul uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in world TO come"
Too often, however, the ignorance
and superstition of the world will mol
allow the soul to rest in the prospec
of better world, but they Oil our days
on earth with dread alarm, and open
the deepest and darkest fountains of
misery in the direction of God and i'm
mortality. And Yet, the very fact that
men cling to the affairs of religion when
they are thus clothed with terror as
garment, is proof of the inward want;
and evidence full and clear, that the
soul needs. and that 1t must and will
have, a religion Of some sort. And thus
it is manifest that divine religion is
among the good things for which the
soul longeth, yea, even thirsteth; and its